Image guided surgery is becoming more common. Systems are utilized to take data gathered from pre-operative scans by MRI, CT scanners, ultrasounds, or the like. The data is used to generate a three-dimensional image to guide a surgeon during an operation. Often this includes some method for tracking an instrument location with respect to the image displayed by the system. Generally, the image is registered relative to locators attached to the patient. Then, the position and orientation of the surgical instruments is registered and tracked relative to the image and the patient so that the location and orientation of the instruments relative to the image is continuously displayed while the surgeon performs the surgery. However, the current image-guided surgery relies on a preoperative scan. Changes to the surgical area during surgery are not reflected in the image by which the surgeon navigates.
Fluorscopy is used in some types of surgery to provide a continuously updated image of the surgical area. However, the two dimensional nature of the fluoroscopy may not provide sufficient information for surgical navigation.